Big Sky Cairn

The left hates Wal-Mart. I could never figure out why. I don’t shop there a lot, but I certainly don’t have anything against ‘em. Especially after reading how they are breaking balls in the music industry about the cost of a CD.

Tensions are not as high now as they were last winter, but making sure Wal-Mart is happy remains one of the music industry’s major priorities. That’s because if Wal-Mart cut back on music, industry sales would suffer severely — though Wal-Mart’s shareholders would barely bat an eye. While Wal-Mart represents nearly twenty percent of major-label music sales, music represents only about two percent of Wal-Mart’s total sales. “If they got out of selling music, it would mean nothing to them,” says another label executive. “This keeps me awake at night.”

I’m glad that keeping Wal-Mart happy keeps them up at night after almost a decade of suing their customers, handicapping every convenient music technology that came along and using mobster tactics to bite the hand that feeds them. I wish consumers like me carried this much influence.

Wondering where the $15.99 for a CD goes?

This breakdown of the cost of a typical major-label release by the independent market-research firm Almighty Institute of Music Retail shows where the money goes for a new album with a list price of $15.99.

$0.17 Musicians’ unions
$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
$0.82 Publishing royalties
$0.80 Retail profit
$0.90 Distribution
$1.60 Artists’ royalties
$1.70 Label profit
$2.40 Marketing/promotion
$2.91 Label overhead
$3.89 Retail overhead